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China's Shenzhou 10 mission landed home safely on Wednesday. The 12-day trip represented the country's longest manned spaceflight mission. "With a complete success of this spaceflight mission as a milestone, China's manned space program will enter into a new phase of manned space station construction," said Wang Zhaoyao, director general of the China Manned Space Agency.

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The Federal Aviation Administration released its NextGen implementation report on June 21. "NextGen improvements will reduce delays by 41% compared with what would happen if no further NextGen improvements were made beyond what we have done already," the report said.

China plans to launch its Shenzhou 10 spaceship for a rendezvous-and-docking venture with the Tiangong 1 space module. The Shenzhou 10 will be the fifth manned space mission for China. "China's program may not have the pizazz of the early Soviet and U.S. space programs, which were much faster-paced, but [the program] appears to be sustainable as China deals with its own economic challenges," said Marcia Smith, editor of SpacePolicyOnline.com.

The head of China's Manned Space Engineering Office says his agency is willing to cooperate with NASA and other agencies on human spaceflight, including joint human missions into space and unpiloted logistics with the 13-ton cargo carrier it is planning for a space station it plans to orbit later in the decade. "We think that a joint spaceflight mission, joint development of space equipment and also joint utilization of space platforms are the most possible field to carry out discussion at the moment," said Wang Wenbao.

The space shuttle Endeavour has arrived at the International Space Station, and astronauts began inspecting the shuttle for damage that may have occurred during the launch. Endeavour will deliver a Japanese lab and a Canadian robot to the station during its 16-day mission, the longest mission ever by a space shuttle.

The first manned Chinese space flight is being used by the country as a way to test the military uses of space. China's Shenzhou space program will be able to leverage existing U.S. and Russian technology to move forward quickly.